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The Q'Maere Research Facility consisted of six sealed habitat domes arranged in a hexagon, connected to each other via access tubes. Each dome contained three levels, and could be sealed off from the rest of the facility in the advent of a breach. A seventh structure, a landing pad, sat in the middle of the domes, and was connected to Dome Six by a retractable access tube.

Dome One served as the facility's Administration Center. The upper level contained the operations and communications equipment, while the middle level housed offices. After being turned into a penal colony, the lower level was retooled into an interrogation and punishment center, referred to as the "disciplinary wing". The facility broadcasted a landing beacon with a METOSP from the operations center.

Dome Two was the facility's Botany Center, and all three levels were given over to plant life. The corridor passing through the interior of the dome was transparisteel, allowing individuals to see the foliage.

Dome Three was the facility's Xenobiology Center, although it was retasked when Moff Sarne took over the facility. By 8 ABY, the dome was devoted to staff quarters. The lower level was for personal storage, the middle level contained recreational facilities, and the upper level was reserved for quarters.

Each access tube was fifty meters long, and had blast doors at either end. The doors to the tube could be overridden and controlled from the Administrative Center in Dome One. Water, air and power conduits were laid under the metal floor of each tube.

The Q'Maere Research Facility was originally established by the University of Sanbra as a scientific outpost. Several of the facility's original scientists were radicals, and left the outpost to form the militant biotech engineering union known as the Qektoth Confederation after the failure of a series of silicon biology experiments.

Some time after the scientists left to form the Confederation, MoffKentor Sarne secretly took over the facility, converting it into a penal colony and re-education center. Inmates at the facility were referred to a "patients", and were treated as mental deficient and unbalanced. Sarne staffed the facility completely under the command of the Director, DoctorLangstyn Kraay, and included a military contingent drawn from the remains of COMPNOR.

Sometime during the facility's operational lifetime, Doctor Vin Emil developed an antidote to the bacteria mutation that plagued ships traveling through the Kathol Rift by spoiling their food supplies.

Shortly after the fall of Kal'Shebbol, Sarne made a brief layover at the facility. He transferred all the military personnel and key staff to his forces, leaving behind those that he considered inept. Of those left behind, many fled the facility in the few hyperspace capable vessels they had, feeling no loyalty towards the Moff that had abandoned them. However, by taking all the functioning spacecraft, they left the facility cut off from the rest of the galaxy, and stranded the prisoners and several members of staff.

Several weeks later, the New Republic vessel FarStar arrived at the facility looking to replenish their food supplies. Eager to get off the planet, Doctor Kraay took their landing party hostage, and ransomed their lives for passage off the planet. However, the FarStar personnel, with aid from the prison population, staged a riot and took control of the facility.

The FarStar was unable to transport all the inmates and patients away from the facility, although several volunteered to crew the vessel. Doctor Akanseh, Chief Medical Officer of the FarStar, remained behind on the station to care for the affected, and to atone for his own time as an unwilling torturer under Moff Sarne.